Each week I share memorable and uplifting stories of remarkable people accomplishing extraordinary things with simple acts of self-mastery. By subscribing, you can also get a free digital copy of my book, Hard Work Is Not Enough.
The Lantern Rouge: How to Turn Disaster Into Success
A dropped water bottle sent Lawson Craddock careening off the road and into a spectator. Craddock, the EF Education First - Drapac rider, rode over the bottle on stage one of the 2018 Tour de France. The crash resulted in a fractured scapula and a bruised and bloodied face.
It isn’t going to be easy.
Reporters surrounded Craddock at the end of the stage. They wanted to know if he would withdraw from the 21-stage, 2,082-mile journey across France. Ahead were cobblestones, arduous climbs, and death-defying descent over the Alps and Pyrenees.
Completing the race healthy seems beyond possibility. Doing it with a broken shoulder is almost unimaginable.
Craddock, raised in Texas and a “born fighter,” didn’t want to give up immediately. The doctors cleared him to ride but warned him it would be painful. With the support of medical and his EF Education teammates, he took each stage one at a time.
Hoping to turn bad luck into triumph, Craddock pinned his No. 13 race number upside down on his jersey. He committed to donating $100 to rebuild a Houston velodrome for each stage he finished. The story went viral, and the media swarmed.
There is no story without suffering.
Coming in last place is not something to seek, yet sometimes it’s what you need. To come in last place means you have to keep going all the way to the end.
Anyone can dig deep for the win, but can you suffer for three weeks knowing the best-case scenario is last place? Thirty-one of the 176 riders who entered could not and withdrew from the race. He described his mindset,
He completed all twenty-one stages of the Tour with a broken shoulder. Four hours and thirty minutes behind the winner Geraint Thomas, he earned the Tour’s “lantern rouge” for finishing in last place.
He was the first in Tour history to hold last place after every stage of the race. He turned a disappointing race into $300,000 for his beloved Velodrome.
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Hi! I'm Jeff Shannon!
Each week I share memorable and uplifting stories of remarkable people accomplishing extraordinary things with simple acts of self-mastery. By subscribing, you can also get a free digital copy of my book, Hard Work Is Not Enough.
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